
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 12, 1992                   TAG: 9203120420
SECTION: NEIGHBORS                    PAGE: N-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Mark Morrison
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

BLUE RIDGE RESIDENTS PROTEST PROPOSED FOOD LION STORE

Botetourt County residents packed a Planning Commission meeting this week to protest a plan to build a Food Lion grocery store at Laymantown Road and U.S. 460 in Blue Ridge.

The Board of Supervisors may face a similar crowd when it holds a public hearing on the plan at its next monthly meeting on Monday.

Still, the Food Lion may be built nonetheless.

The Planning Commission gave conditional approval for the grocery store after Food Lion officials agreed to make several changes in their plan to try to ease community concerns.

County residents - many from the Rainbow Forest, Knollwood and Lake Forest subdivisions up Laymantown Road from the store site - were particularly concerned about potential traffic problems, parking-lot lights and whether a bridge on Laymantown Road would be safe for trucks carrying goods to the store.

Food Lion officials said they would work with the Virginia Department of Transportation to install a traffic light at the intersection and additional turn lanes to alleviate traffic congestion. They also agreed to shorten the light poles in the parking lot from 40 feet to 15 feet.

In addition, they said, the lot have access to both Laymantown Road and U.S. 460, so trucks would not have to cross the bridge on Laymantown Road.

by CNB